Workers At 3 NJ Colleges Eligible For Union As Non-Managers

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey state appeals court on Friday upheld a state labor agency's finding that dozens of employees at three public colleges are eligible for union membership, rejecting the state's argument that the workers fall within a statutory carveout for managers.

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Power Broker, Atty Brother Rip Developer's 'Pleading Gambit'

By George Woolston

South Jersey power broker George Norcross and his attorney brother pushed back at a developer's bid to drop a civil racketeering claim against them after an appeals court backed the dismissal of a related criminal case, telling a state court that the proposed amendments to his complaint are futile.

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Kenvue Says Shea & Cocoa Butter Oil Is Accurately Labeled

By Gina Kim

Kenvue urged a New Jersey federal court to nix a proposed class action alleging its shea and cocoa butter oil is deceptively advertised, as it's primarily made with a petroleum byproduct, arguing Thursday the front label truthfully identifies it as an oil enriched with shea and cocoa butter. 

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Zales Worker's Age Bias Suit Lacks Evidence, 3rd Circ. Says

By Grace Elletson

The Third Circuit backed the dismissal of a Zales consultant's bias suit claiming she was fired from the jewelry chain for complaining that her colleagues commented negatively about her age, ruling she couldn't overcome evidence that concerns about her performance actually drove her termination.

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Ex-FERC Chair Backs Pa. AG's Intervention In Grid Fight

By P.J. D'Annunzio

Former Federal Energy Regulatory Commission chairman Mark Christie voiced support for Pennsylvania's efforts to block a power grid project along its southern border in a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court Friday, asking the high court to allow the state's attorney general to challenge an appellate ruling that held federal law governed the project.

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VW Says NLRB Forcing Bargaining After Anti-Union Vote

By Rae Ann Varona

The National Labor Relations Board is pursuing an "unconstitutional administrative proceeding" against Volkswagen's U.S. arm, the automaker told a Texas federal court Friday, saying the NLRB is attempting to force it to recognize and bargain with a union that employees at an essential supply chain facility voted against.

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States Seek Win To Restore DOE's Diversity Grant Cuts

By Joyce Hanson

Eight states have asked a Massachusetts federal judge to restore $160 million to federal programs providing professional development to new teachers cut by the U.S. Department of Education last year, which the states said were unlawfully targeted by the Trump administration as diversity initiatives.

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Missed Deadline Fatal To Patient's Stapler Suit, 4th Circ. Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

The Fourth Circuit ruled Friday that a surgery patient's missed expert disclosure deadline rightfully ended his case seeking to hold Johnson & Johnson subsidiary Ethicon Endo-Surgery LLC liable for allegedly faulty staples used in his procedure.

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Brief

Aramark Joins NJ Insulin Pricing Suits Against PBMs

By Carla Baranauckas

Aramark Services Inc. joined multidistrict litigation accusing CVS and pharmacy benefit managers of colluding to inflate the price of insulin.

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Roundup

Real Estate Recap: Learning From Loan-Guarantor Litigation

By Real Estate Authority Staff

Catch up on this past week's key developments by state from Law360 Real Estate Authority — including a deep dive into how an uptick in lender-guarantor claims is shaping new loans.

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Dentons Brings On K&L Gates Employment Ace In NJ, NY

By Jake Maher

Dentons US announced this week it has brought on a former K&L Gates LLP partner of over 20 years in its labor and employment group in New Jersey and New York.

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2 Discovery Rulings Break With Heppner On AI Privilege Issue

While a New York federal court’s recent ruling in U.S. v. Heppner suggests that some litigants’ communications with AI tools are discoverable, two other recent federal court decisions demonstrate that such interactions generally qualify for work-product protection under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, says Joshua Dunn at Brown Rudnick.

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Black McDermott Atty Says White Men Favored For Partner

By Lauren Berg

A Black female McDermott Will & Schulte attorney accused the firm of gender, race and pregnancy discrimination in a lawsuit lodged in California state court, saying she has been consistently bypassed for promotion by less-experienced white attorneys and was yanked off casework after taking medical leave following a life-threatening illness during pregnancy.

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'Kind Of Lawyering We Don't Like': Judge Rips Quinn Emanuel

By Bonnie Eslinger

Guardant Health Inc. urged a California federal judge on Monday to make Quinn Emanuel pay nearly $1.3 million on top of $3 million in sanctions already imposed over misrepresentations lawyers made representing its rival Natera Inc., prompting the judge to criticize Quinn Emanuel lawyers for making distinctions so fine they veer into misrepresentation.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fish & Richardson's Nitika Gupta Fiorella

By Dani Kass

Fish & Richardson PC principal Nitika Gupta Fiorella is "a no-stone-unturned, always super prepared" lawyer who "epitomizes professionalism and respect," according to Finnegan Henderson Farabow Garrett & Dunner LLP partner Cora Holt.

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Fox Lawyer In Dominion Case Confirmed To Texas Bench

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-46 Monday evening to confirm Andrew Davis, a partner at Lehotsky Keller Cohn LLP who defended Fox News in the Dominion Voting Systems defamation case, to serve on the bench in the Western District of Texas.

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Justices Won't Consider IP Theft Allegations Against Akin

By Dani Kass

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a former Cornell University graduate student's petition trying to revive his malpractice suit against Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP stemming from patent litigation against Illumina Inc. over DNA sequencing intellectual property.

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DC Ethics Office Says Ex-Interim US Atty Can't Remove Case

By Emily Sawicki

Washington, D.C., ethics officials have asked a federal court to send U.S. Department of Justice official Ed Martin's ethics case back to the D.C. Board on Professional Responsibility, arguing the D.C. federal court lacks jurisdiction over a disciplinary matter, which is neither a civil action nor a criminal prosecution.

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Ex-Newman Clerks, Judges Back High Court Suspension Fight

By Adam Lidgett

A group of former clerks for Federal Circuit Judge Pauline Newman, as well as former federal judges, have urged the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the challenge to her suspension imposed by her colleagues.

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Insurer Intentionally Avoiding $200M Loan Claim, Court Told

By Hope Patti

A litigation funding firm has accused its insurer of wrongfully refusing to pay out its policy's guaranteed $200 million in coverage for an unpaid loan, saying the insurer buried it in duplicative and burdensome information requests to avoid paying a valid claim.

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Judge Says Ill. Justices Can't Fire Him Over MAGA Op-Ed

By Jack Karp

Illinois Supreme Court justices have no authority to remove a state judge from the bench for alleged misconduct, so their effort to dismiss a retired state trial judge's claims that his removal for penning a political opinion column violated his constitutional rights should be rejected, the retired jurist has said.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week delivered another mix of procedural rulings, fiduciary duty disputes and deal litigation, highlighting both the court's gatekeeping role and its continued focus on stockholder rights and transactional fairness.

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